Attica Correctional Facility

"Attica State" redirects here. For the song, see Attica State (song).

Attica Correctional Facility

The Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum security/supermax New York State prison located in the town of Attica, New York, operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services. After it was constructed in the 1930s, it held many of the most dangerous criminals of the time. A tear gas system is installed in the mess hall and industry areas and has been used to quell conflicts in these areas. The prison now holds many inmates who are serving various types of sentences (short-term to life), and who are usually sent to the facility because of disciplinary problems in other facilities. Joseph 'Mad Dog' Sullivan is the only man that has ever escaped the prison.

Riots

Main article: Attica Prison riot

Attica was the site of a prison riot in 1971 which resulted in 43 deaths, of which 33 were convicts and ten were correctional officers and civilian employees. One guard died by the hands of the rioting convicts in the early stages of the riot. The rest died by gunfire from state troopers and other retired guards. One of the biggest reasons for the riot was overcrowding, but to this day Attica Correctional Facility is still over maximum capacity by double bunking a small portion of their population in the small cells which are designed to house only one inmate.

Notable inmates

• David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, serial killer who confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City during the late 1970s. Since becoming a Christian, Berkowitz has stated he does not want to be paroled and should pay for the sins he has committed. Berkowitz is currently housed at Sullivan Correctional Facility.
• H. Rap Brown, Black Panther Party leader, served a sentence in Attica from 1971 to 1976.
• Mark David Chapman, who pleaded guilty for murdering John Lennon in 1980. Chapman was sentenced to 20 years-to-life and has been denied parole eight times amidst campaigns against his release. Chapman is currently housed at the Wende Correctional Facility.
• Edward Cummiskey, Westies hitman during the 1970s.
• Dean Faiello, unlicensed physician who was charged in the manslaughter of Filipina-American banker Maria Cruz in 2003.
• Jimmy Caci, a captain in the Los Angeles crime family spent eight years in Attica during the 1970s.
• Colin Ferguson, who murdered six people on the Long Island Rail Road (AAR: LIRR) in 1993. Ferguson is serving multiple life sentences.
• Kendall Francois, who murdered eight women, some of whom were prostitutes, and stored their bodies in his home in Poughkeepsie, New York. Francois was serving a life sentence without parole but died in September 2014.
• Sam Melville, notorious as "mad bomber" in 1960s, a Weather Underground member killed by New York State Police troopers during the "Attica Prison riot" of September 13, 1971.
• Willie Sutton, who robbed 100 banks from the late 1920s to 1952.
• Frank P. Giffune, the Italian mob "fall guy" was sent to Attica in 1940 and sentenced to 12–25 years for grand larceny.
• El Sayyid Nosair, 1993 World Trade Center bombing terrorist was housed in Attica for a short duration earlier, related to a different assassination.

External links

• NYS prison information